HOW TO PREPARE OGBONO SOUP

This post will cover the following topics:

• What is Ogbono Soup?
•  Procedures and ingredients you need to cook Ogbono soup
• Different ways you can prepare Ogbono soup
• How to fry grinded Ogbono seeds when cooking Ogbono soup
• How to Cook Ogbono soup without frying the grinded seed
• Precautions when cooking Ogbono Soup
• How to serve Ogbono soup

 

 

WHAT IS OGBONO SOUP?

Ogbono soup is a popular Nigerian delicacy known as draw-soup because it draws when eating it. Among the list of popular Nigerian soups, the Ogbono soup joins the first five in number. It is a soup loved by all the tribes in Nigeria and other countries of Africa. Despite its slippery nature and drawing properties like okra soup, Ogbono soup still rank high and more preferred than other soup in public restaurants.

Organically, one would say that after egusi soup, and vegetable soup, Ogbono soup make up the next list in the popular soups in Nigeria. Almost every busy restaurant will have these three sets of soups in southern Nigeria.

Preparing Ogbono soup is not as difficult as you may think. It is one of the best soup yet it appears to be easier in preparation than others. This post will guide you on how you can prepare delicious Ogbono soup even if you have knowledge about the soup and its preparation method.

Here are procedures you need to follow to cook a delicious Ogbono soup:

The procedure and list of items you need here may differ from the ones someone else would prescribe. This list I am making is for a learner who wants to know how to cook Ogbono soup basically without listing all the costly items that will obviously make the soup sweet such as red meats, fresh big crayfish, and others. To know the basic ways of cooking Ogbono soup, read the remaining parts of this article carefully.

Ingredients you will need are:

Buy one milk cup of Ogbono seeds

Buy stockfish (any quantity you can afford)

Buy cow skin (Kamda A.k.A. Kpomo)

Buy ice fish or any Fresh fish

Buy little quantity of Pumpkin leave (Ugwu leave) or dried bitter leave

Other cooking ingredients you to have are common salt, onions, crayfish, Maggi cubes or any other sweetener, native Maggi (okpei), red palm oil, and pepper.

 

 

DIFFERENT WAYS YOU CAN PREPARE OGBONO SOUP

From the list of available items, follow these steps:

Use your blender and blend the Ogbono seeds you bought from the market in the dry-blending cup of the blender. Ogbono seeds are difficult to blend if there is any trace of water in it. If your blender cannot blend dried seeds properly you can give it out to mini-mills in the market to grind for you.

After the grinding store, it in a small bowl and cover it. Blend the crayfish you want to use. And slice the onions quantity you want to use.

To add the stockfish flavor, wash the stockfish with clean water and salt and start boiling it in a pot. add small pepper, salt, and onion into it. Allow it to boil for about 20 minutes while you will be doing other things.

Wash the fresh fish with clean water and steam it for just 5minutes. Add salt and onion and half-cube of Maggi into it.

You can still cook the cowskin meat with the stockfish if the meat is very strong and you are not in a hurry otherwise, wash the Cowskin with salt and slice it into small pieces then keep in a separate bowl.

Remove the stockfish from the pot leaving its water inside the pot, then keep the stockfish inside a separate bowl.

Remove the steamed fresh fish from the pot leaving its water inside the pot and keep the fish in a separate bowl.

Wash the fresh vegetable with salt in clean water and slice it. After that, keep it in a separate bowl.

You can now mix the water you used to boil the stockfish and the fresh fish together in one pot.

The Cooking of the soup itself

At this stage you have two options, it is either you add the grinded Ogbono seeds directly into the pot containing the water you obtained from the cooked stockfish and fresh fish or you may decide to fry the ogbono seed.

If you do not want the soup to draw too much or want to reduce the slippery nature of the soup, you will need to fry it first before proceeding with other stages. But if you prefer the natural feel and taste of the Ogbono soup you can skip the frying process and move to the next step.

 

HOW TO FRY GRINDED OGBONO SEEDS WHEN COOKING OGBONO SOUP

Empty the pot you want to use in cooking the soup and place it on your stove and start heating it.

When the pot has dried up and is very hot, pour the actual quantity of red oil (palm oil) you intend to use in cooking the soup.

Without wasting much time, pour the grinded Ogbono seeds into the hot red oil pot without waiting until the oil changes color and smoke start to come out of the pot.

Start stirring the Ogbono seed in the hot oil continuously until it gets even with the oil and starts showing signs of dryness.

At this stage, add the water you obtained from the cooked fresh fish and the stockfish. It will make a hash sound of cooling effect from the water. At this stage, it will stop boiling. If the water quantity is not enough, add more freshwater but do not over add it.

Start by adding the sliced cow skin meat (Kpomo) and the stockfish first, add the last portion of salt you will use for the soup.

Add the last portion of pepper and onions and all the ingredients you have prepared. Do not forget to melt two balls of native Maggi on a small plate with water in it. Pour the melted native Maggi water into the pot as well and allow everything to start boiling leaving your pot open until everything starts getting thick and never forget to be stirring from time to time with a long spoon.

Wait a bit until the water in the pot starts to boil. Once it has boiled a few minutes add the steamed fresh fish and wait more few minutes before adding the fresh vegetable leaves you have sliced. Note that you shouldn’t allow the pot to still be on the stove after 2 minutes you have added the fresh vegetable leaves.

 

COOKING OGBONO SOUP WITHOUT FRYING THE GRINDED OGBONO SEED

If you want to get the real taste and feel of ogbono soup, then you have to cook it naturally without frying it. Though frying the grinded ogbono seed has the advantage of reducing the draw-draw nature of the soup which some people may find very uncomfortable, the frying can negatively impact the overall taste of the soup, color, and nutrition. Therefore, cooking it in its natural way is the only way of getting 100 percent of what the soup can offer.

To cook the ogbono soup without fry it, just do the following:

Place the pot you want to use on the stove and pour the water you have obtained from the cooked stocked fish and the fresh fish.

Pour the grinded ogbono seed inside the pot immediately without waiting for the water to get hot or start boiling.

Start stirring everything together continuously until the Ogbono seed becomes homogenous with the water in the pot. At this stage evaluate the size of water in the pot and add more water if it is not enough.

Add the sliced cowskin meat and the stockfish and add all the cooking ingredients except the fresh vegetable leaves and the fresh fish. allow everything to boil very well until the water becomes thick while stirring it.

Once everything starts boiling wait for the stockfish to soften before adding the fresh fish. This is to prevent the fresh fish from splitting into pieces before the soup gets ready.

Wash the thickness of the soup once it gets very thick to your taste, add the fresh vegetable leaves and use a spoon to obtain a little portion and taste if everything you added gives the exact taste you are looking for. If there are any lapses such as low salt or pepper you can balance it that moment before bringing the pot down from the stove.

 

 

PRECAUTIONS WHEN COOKING OGBONO SOUP

Do not cover your pot when cooking Ogbono Soup. If you do, the soup will pour away from the pot while cooking it.

If you are frying the Ogbono seed, do not allow the red oil in the pot to start bringing out smoke. If that happens, the red oil could change color and can over-fry the Ogbono seed.

If you do not fry the Ogbono very well the draw-draw property will not reduce but if you over-fry it the Ogbono will lose its taste and will not draw at all. Therefore, moderation is the key.

Do not forget to stir the ogbono very well if you are not frying so that it wouldn’t form crumbs in the soup.

 

HOW TO SERVE OGBONO SOUP

Serving Ogbono soup is very simple. All you need is to allow the soup to cool so that it can get thicker but if you already have the thickness you want you can go ahead and serve the soup with any of the following swallowing foods: Cassava flours (Akpu, Garri, or Starch), Semovita, and lots more.